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Keithley's Korner: Voters have faith that progress is made even though you can't see the buried pipes

Sometimes when you can’t see something with your own eyes it can be difficult to believe it really exists.

Tim Keithley(Photo: Courtesy)

Believing anyway is called faith.

A perfect example of this is Ruidoso’s 300 miles of underground water pipelines and 42 pressure zones. On Tuesday, voters overwhelming passed another $3 million general obligation bond to keep the village replacing those fifty-year-old pipes even though the property tax money gets buried with every new pipe.

“It’s like taking a bite out of a foot-long sandwich,” Ruidoso Village Manager Debi Lee said on “New Mexico in the Morning” this week. “The total cost to replace all the pipes is significant - we don’t even have a number for that - and it’s not reasonable to expect that we can pay for it all at once. But this $3 million figure allows us to keep replacing the pipes and funding water projects around town for another two years to help us keep making bite-sized progress.”

Here’s proof that progress is being made on the underground pipes, according to Debi. She said there were 103 total water leaks in the village three years ago. Two years ago, that number was cut in half. She said the number of leaky pipes continue to diminish. There is also proof in what comes out of the faucets more consistently and the village’s compliance with safe drinking water standards.

Debi said that the water department keeps a push-pin map that tracks on the wall when any leaks occur, which puts a water pipe leak on the list for total replacement. Before, the water department would “clamp” the leak, which was the typical fix.

“Replacing old pipes is our number-one priority,” Debi said. “The results of Tuesday’s vote shows the community has faith in us that we’re fixing the underground pipes, even through they can’t always see the progress.”